A half-classical, half-anything blog written by a couple of guys with way too much music.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

One thing that this beautiful Internet severely lacks is classical music. Many of my posts will focus on introducing some of my favorite pieces and composers to y'all. As of now, I have been listening to Robert Schumann's piano quintet nonstop. This is considered by many to be the first great piano quintet, and one of the landmark pieces of the Romantic era. Schumann is relatively unknown and very underrated, but he was the man who discovered Brahms and was a major influence on late Romantics and modern music in general. Schumann was a tormented, depressed, and literally insane man (he died in a mental institution,) and he was able to channel all his desperate feelings into this piece perfectly. Listen to the second movement in particular for beautiful harmonies, powerful melodies and poignant interplay between the piano and the strings. It also doesn't hurt that one of the best string quartets is teamed with the top-notch pianist Emmanuel Ax in this recording. Schumann piano quartet and piano quintet- Emmanuel Ax and the Cleveland Quartet

2 Comments:

This is very good news -- a blog with classical music as well as jazz. I've never followed pop music in all its forms, though I am getting informed now through the internet (I am officially retired).You'll no doubt get some requests from me as time goes by -- my first record was Andre Segovia (title unknown), and I love spanish guitar if you have any.